On Dialogue

David Bohm was a thought leader of most noble principles. Both lauded and persecuted for his discoveries and his philosophical stance on matters, a notable aspect of his thoughts is presented in this volume. 'On Dialogue' is a most unexpected manual on how to direct our minds in order to best communicate with others in view of arriving at new, collaborative ideas and discoveries. The prescriptions are well-presented, logical, rational, and delivered with utmost sensitivity. The author does not shy away from discord, and does not attempt to create any form of a temporary happy place. The approach offered in this book is personally challenging and ultimately rewarding. For those who care to inquire within, and improve relations with others in all contexts, this is a must-read.

I read this book from two perspectives (1) is it useful for business? (2) Does it present some innovations in modern Buddhist thinking? Every substantial business holds innumerable internal meetings. The participants will all say that they waste a lot of time in those meetings. Why do they waste so much time? Jack Welch in his book "Winning", in chapter two, "The biggest dirty little secret in business", writes that the problem is LACK OF CANDOR. "People do not express themselves with frankness". "They just don't open up; instead they withhold comments or criticism". "It is absolutely damaging". "Yet, lack of candour permeates almost every aspect of business." David Bohm explains why this is the case and what you can do about it. The cause is that people hold opinions to which they are attached and when another person expresses another opinion and criticises the opinion of the first person, the instant reaction of the criticised person is to defend his opinion. This leads to an incredible waste of time and emotional energy. Instead the person whose opinion is criticised should suspend immediate reaction and try to understand what the assumptions are on which the opinion of the other person is based and suspend judgement and reaction. Before reacting he should also examine the assumptions on which he based his different opinion. This does require control over one's emotions and thought process. David Bohm, being a great scientist, includes an amusing story about scientists. Max Planck a German Nobel Prize winning physicist, said about dialogues between scientists: "New ideas don't win, really". "What happens is that the old scientists die and new ones come along with new ideas". If that happens in business, that is no innovation, the company dies sooner rather than later. This is one of the best books to understand and learn about creating candid dialogues. Buddhism and new ideas. The Dalai Lama refers to David Bohm as his guru. They met many times. Some useful ideas you can not easily find in Buddhism are the following. Buddhism emphasises that you must try to reduce negative thoughts and emotions like, anger, jealousy and greed. Bohm emphasises that you must learn to observe your thinking process including the influence of emotions. Observing the thought process is a step beyond reducing negative thoughts and emotions. Another insight is that thoughts are from the past and so are feelings for which there is no word, he suggests the word "felts". Thinking is a current process that is influenced by thoughts and "felts". Also something you have to watch. Bohm recommends that that if you talk and listen to other people you have to observe their body language, people do not communicate only with their voice. Candid dialogue depends on the ability to listen, to ask questions, almost more than on what you say. Bohm explains the importance of coherence. Incoherence means that your intention and your results do not agree. Ordinary light is incoherent,

This book is a gem. It is very intelligent. It is a great resource for culture, building communinity, the nature of thought and how to train ourselves to witness our thoughts, moving beyond our habitual patterning. It speaks about participatory thought and using counsel to create meaning within culture. Well articulated, engaging and applicable to our current culture.

The book titled "On Dialogue", by David Bohm,is an important read for anyone who has the interest to learn and understand the many causes affecting humankind. First, by understanding how our mind has become so conditioned and is so full of preconceptions that we are unable to listen and learn from others through an honest, open and unbiased process. We have become so fixated in our opinions and points of view and in our argumentative thinking that we are simply unable to learn by discovering through a process of sharing meaning with others. It is written in very simple terms but it gets to the core issues impeding a true process of dialogue. Worthwhile reading and re-reading to help us be more cognizant of the need of suspending judment and beliefs when others do not think like us and how we may learn from others by all being opened and discovering together the essential needs and elements to function towards the betterment of humanity. One could say that the message is perhaps too naive in a world where the motto is driven by personal or national interests first before anything else. This does not take away the fact that we have become so sophisticated in constructing all sorts of arguments, which we use as pretexts to hide some essential truths that lie at the core of not wanting to forego our personal interests in favor of our common good. No wonder we are where we are.

David Bohm (1996), wrote about proprioception, which is the basically the self-awareness that allows us to realize that our bodies our wired to know when we move them versus being moved by something else. In other words, we know when we have moved our arm or when someone else has moved it. Not so with thoughts and emotions, he said: "You may get a feeling that you don't like from a thought, and then a second later say, "I've got to get rid of that feeling," but your thought is still there working, especially if it's a thought that you take to be absolutely necessary. . . . "We could say that practically all of the problems of the human race are due to the fact that thought is not proprioceptive. Thought is constantly creating problems that way and then trying to solve them. But as it tries to solve them it makes it worse because it doesn't notice that it's creating them, and the more it thinks, the more problems it creates--because it's not proprioceptive of wht it's doing. If your body were that way you would very quickly come to grief and you wouldn't last very long. And it may be said that if our culture were that way, our civilization would not last all that long, either" (p. 25). Bohm's contribution to servant-leadership is his resonance with Greenleaf (2002) on the topics of awareness and responsibility. The latter said that the "servant views any problem in the world as in here, inside oneself, not out there" and that it is not just problems that the self generates and is responsible for because "So it is with joy" as well as trouble (p. 57).